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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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ADDRESS 



Rev. B. M. PALMER, D. D. 



Washington and Lee University 



Lexington, Va. 



27 1 h Jiuie, 7872, 



/. 



The Present Crisis and its Issues, 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE LITERARY SOCIETIES 



lllilM Ai 111 ilffllSin 



LoxiiigtoB, Ya, 27tli June, 1872, 

^ B.M! PALMER, D.D. 



By Rev. 



Published at the Request of the Societies, and also of the 
Board of Trustees of the University. 




BALTIMORE: 

Feinted by John Murphy & Co. 

Publishers, Booksellers, Printers and Stationers, 

182 Baltimore Street. 
18 72. 



o( CORRESPONDENCE. 

s Wasuington and Lee University, 

^ June 27th, 1872. 

To Dr. B. M. Palmer: 

Reverknd and Dear Sir: Permit us to expi-ess to you our high sense of 
the obligation conferred on the Graham Lee and Washington Literary Socie- 
ties, by the appropriate and most impressive Address which you were so kind 
as to deliver before those bodies this morning ; and to indulge the hope that 
you will yield to the wishes of the Societies, by placing in our hands a copj- 
for publication. 

Wishing you a safe return to your home, and hoping that you may long- 
be spared, the distinguished advocate of Truth and Liberty, 
We remain, very respectfully yours, 

Cave Desha, F. H. Mitchell, 

M. E. Kleberg, W. W. Topp, 

J. A. Kirkpatrick, Frank Field, 

Committee of G. L. S, Committee of W. L. S. 



Washington and Lee University, 

Lexington, Va., June 27th, 1872. 

To Messrs. Cave Desha, F. H. Mitchell, 

M. E. Kleberg, W. W. Topp, 

J. A. Kirkpatrick, Frank Field, 

Co7Ji. of G. L. S. Com. of W. L. S. 

Gentlemen : In compliance with the wish so kindly expressed in your 
note just received, I take pleasure in placing in your hands the Address 
which I had the honour of delivering this morning before the Graham Lee 
and Washington Literary Societies. 

With profound gratitude for the favour with which it was received by the 
lovers of country and of truth in this University, 

I remain. Gentlemen, most truly yours, 

B. M. Palmer. 



EESOLUTION OF THE BOAED OF TRUSTEES. 

" Resolved, That the Faculty be requested, with the consent of the Eev. 
Dr. Palmer, to publish the very able and eloquent Address delivered by hiui 
this day, in the Chapel of the University." 

Jacob Fuller, 

June 27th, 1872. Clerk of the Board. 



ADDRESS. 

History breaks itself into Epochs which constitute its natural 
boundaries, just as rivers and mountains define the limits of coun- 
tries upon our globe. xVnnalists, therefore, who seek to partition 
it by centuries, are as foolish as geographers would be in making 
parallels of latitude the lines of separation between provinces upon 
their maps. Both serve a useful purpose in the way of general 
reference, but not as lines of demarcation. As rivers will run 
their free course, and lakes choose their own beds, and mountains 
throw their chain of spurs, in utter disregard of those imaginary 
lines of space ; so the great events which form the vertebra; of 
History will push their own Avay over these artificial divisions 
of time, culminating at last in the mighty Epochs which form the 
logical and actual conclusion of the entire series. The develop- 
ment may be slow or rapid, according to the intensity of the forces 
at work and the number of combinations involved. Usually, the 
progression is by easy and almost unperceived stages in the begin- 
ning; impetuous and precipitate, as by its own momentum, it 
rushes on to its close. Nor can the character of a given period 
be fully estimated until by a complete induction of all the facts, 
rendered at its termination. 

It is true that careful observation, extended over many such 
periods in the past, will furnish analogies from which to prognos- 
ticate the future. Yet the value of these inferences is liable to be 
impaired by differences that continually emerge, and prevent 
History from being an exact repetition of itself It would be 
easy to signalize the blunders in })olitical science, springing from 
hasty and partial generalizations, and leaving a wide margin for 
adventurous prophecy of what may never be realized in the world 



6 

of fact. Lasting -svounds have thus been Inflicted upon the pros- 
perity and life of a nation by attempting to carry over the ex- 
2)erience of one age or race, as the absohite law to bind the free 
movements of other times and other generations. For what is 
called the Philosophy of History only yields the general causes 
that mould society; which yet are constantly modified, under the 
various conditions in which they are brought into play. However 
sound, thei-efore, the principles which are evolved by a careful 
analysis of the past, the application of them under perpetually 
shifting circumstances is necessarily more or less empirical. Still, 
in passing from one stage to another in any historical develop- 
ment, nothing is left us but to gather up the lessons of the one, to 
be applied, with a wise discretion, amid the perplexities of the 
other. For, as the Epochs which form the landmarks of History 
are connected by an inexorable logic, so must a nation's identity 
be preserved through the misty interval between them. 

Let us, however, pause for a moment upon the terms Ave are 
employing. What are we to understand precisely by the word 
Epoch, destined to recur so often in the progress of this discourse? 
A descriptive definition is furnished to our hand by one of the 
most accurate scholars of the age. Time, in general, he considers 
under the aspect of simple duration, as the mere succession of 
moments ; whilst an Epoch is " time " considered as " bringing 
forth its several births." Epochs are " the joints or articulations 
in this time; the critical periods when all that has been slowly and 
often unmarkedly ripening through long ages, is mature, and comes 
to the birth in grand decisive events, which constitute at once the 
close of one period and the commencement of another." Of course, 
the fruit that is borne in the first becomes a necessary factor in 
the product of the second : a principle I desire to emphasize, be- 
cause indispensable to the continuity of History, and because it 
has an application to the discussion upon Avhich we are presently 
to embark. 

It is obvious now that these Epochs are of wider or narrower 
significance, according as they relate to Universal or to Particular 



History. As instances of the first, — accepting tlie obvious illus- 
trations of the writer already quoted — the birth of our Saviour 
into the world may be cited : which, as throwing a new life into 
the career of the human race, divides History into its two 
volumes, known as ancient and modern. So the conversion of 
Constantino, and the accession of Christianity to the throne of 
the Csesars, wrought a revolution in human affairs, whose tides 
have not ceased to flow through the fifteen centuries that have 
followed. The dismemberment of the Roman Empire, too, — 
sinking a melancholy Avreck beneath the waves of Gothic in- 
vasion, — forms another Epoch in Universal History; since out 
of the chaos emerged, in due succession, the present Congress of 
European States, Avith the iniportant parts they have sustained in 
the drama of the world's history ever since. Passing again over 
the long night of a thousand years which had settled upon the 
nations of Europe, the stupendous Reformation of the sixteenth 
century gave the dawn of another day, increasing in splendor; 
and not, we trust, to be eclipsed but with the extinction of time 
itself. There is no need of other illustrations hardly less con- 
spicuous; for these abundantly justify Archbishop Trench's idea 
of the great births that are brought forth in those decisive events 
which make an Epoch the boundary stone between a closing and 
an opening cycle. 

On the other hand, there are Epochs not less the hinges upon 
which local History turns. We cannot trace the career of any 
single people without noticing the points at which a new growth 
was formed, shooting out in directions we could never have fore- 
seen. It required, for example, the lapse of five hundred years 
before the little Rome upon the Tiber could absorb the aboriginal 
Italian States, and thus control the entire Peninsula. Here was 
the end of one cycle : and it remained to be seen whether she 
would content herself with this as her natural domain, and simply 
be coordinated with the other powers of the earth ; or whether her 
military ambition, evoked by five centuries of martial training, 
would aspire to the mastery of the globe. The destruction of 



8 

Carthage might have been construed as indispensable to her 
security and repose, as tlie two jealous rivals looked askance at 
each other across the narrow Mediterranean. It was in fact 
the first in a long series of conquests, never arrested until a 
prostrate world lay beneath the beak of her proud Eagles. 
Another cycle was passed ; and the finger of destiny pointed to 
the hour of her last and fatal choice: either Avisely to consolidate 
her rule by applying those principles of government and law, 
the solution of which has formed the true glory of the Roman 
name; or wantonly to break under the weight of her acquired 
dominions, and perish at last through the excess of her power. 

To this latter class of Epochs, lying in the range of particular 
rather than general History, I desire now. Gentlemen of the 
University, to solicit your attention. That they are critical 
periods, is plain from the fact that they are periods of transition. 
The navigation is always dangerous through the narrow straits 
which connect two open seas. And the grave question arises, how 
a people, brought to the end of a given Cycle, may safely tide over 
the bar, and find the deeper sea-room lying beyond. The ques- 
tion is a most practical one to us upon this continent, to-day ; for 
it involves the possibility of a great people " slouching down upon 
the wrong side of its crisis;" which a moderate share of virtue 
should enable it to turn with safety and honor. 

T(here are at least two canons which experience has furnished, 
beaifing upon this issue. The first is, thai no people has long kept 
its ^lace in history after traversing the fundamental princijdes upon 
which the national character has been formed; and which are, there- 
fore, imbedded in the institutions of the country, and woven into 
the texture of a nation's civilization and thought. It would be a 
prodigal waste of these precious moments to argue the point, that 
every truly historic race must be the representative of some dis- 
tinct idea. It is just this want of identification with any great 
principle to be wrought out in their public fortunes, that has 
rendered so many nations on the globe completely unhistoric. 
They simply drift upon the tide, tossed to and fro upon the mere 



9 

chances of life, vexed by wars that terminate in no moral rcsnlt, 
and sink at last into dark oblivion. When the history of the 
world is written, these are discounted just as though they had 
never been ; simply because they have contributed no page to the 
record which is not an ntter blank. The principles, then, which 
a nation undertakes to represent, become the key to its career. 
Whatever changes may be wrought in the external forms of its life, 
through the various crises it is called to pass, must lie in one general 
direction, and upon the plane of those original and fundamental 
convictions through which it was brought into being. Foreign war 
and civil discord, the stress of revolution and the intrigues of 
diplomacy, may strain these principles to the utmost, or even 
threaten their extinction. Yet can they never be surrendered. 
With the tenacity that belongs to the instinct of life itself they 
must be cherished, enshrined as a deeper faith in .the nation's 
heart, and receiving a fuller expansion from the severity of the 
probation to which they are exposed. 

It is amazing what outward perils a State may survive, and 
what inward corruptions its inherent life will slough away, so long 
as it remains true to its primitive and hereditary faiths. There is 
old England rising in her grandeur from the level of European 
history, like her own island from the bed of the sea; carving her 
destiny and working out her free constitution through seven 
centuries of stern conflict; keeping her steady march throu^di 
changes of dynasty, through the wrench of civil wars as lasting 
as that of the Grecian Peloponnesus, against the jealousy of Con- 
tinental rivals who have often combined to sweep her from her 
island throne: what has wrought this marvel of progress and of 
power, but her constant faith in the great principles of civil free- 
dom which she had undertaken to assert? And what but the 
same loyalty to the cause of liberty and truth reclaimed to 
Netherland an empire from the waters of the very ocean, walling it 
with dykes against which the waves dash in vain, and enabling 
her to wrest her independence, even in her youth, from Imperial 
Spain, under the powerful and crafty Philip? 



10 

If, on the contrary, you would know the slow but certain ruin 
into which the mightiest kingdom must crumble, that has tra- 
versed its principles and denied its traditions, look at Imperial 
Rome, faintly disguising its apostasy from republican integrity 
under the dead form of a Roman Senate. The day of her dig- 
nity was when her Consuls and her Tribunes were the free choice 
of the people ; when to be a Roman was to be a freeman and a 
ruler; when citizenship in the great Republic was a patent of 
nobility equal to that of princes. But when she became the slave 
of her own armies, and the magistracy of the ballot gave place to 
the dominion of the sword, then came sloA^ly but sternly the retri- 
bution tliat ever awaits political apostasy. And the marvellous 
fact stands before us, that the kingdom that has been the most 
thoroughly blotted from the earth, the most completely sucked 
up by barbarian hordes, existing only as a memory in the tradi- 
tions of the past, is that very kingdom of iron, wrought out by 
the most iron race the world has ever known, whose supremacy 
of force bowed the whole earth before it in the submission of 
absolute terror, but whose strength of iron was turned into the 
feebleness of clay when it slipped into an Empire and forgot the 
traditions of the Republic. 

" The Niobe of nations ! there she stands, 

Childless and crownl'ess, in her voiceless woo; 
An empty urn Avithin her withered hands, 

"Wliose holy dust was scattei-ed long ago ! 
The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now ; 

The very sepulchres lie tenantless 
Of their heroic dwellers : dost thou flow, 

Old Tiber, through a marble wilderness ? 
Else, with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress. 

The Goth, the Christian, time, war, flood and fire, 

Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride; 
She saw her glories, star by star, expire. 

And up the steep, barbarian monarchs ride 
"Where the car climbed the capitol : far and wide, 

Temple and tower went down, nor left a site : — 
Chaos of ruins ! "Who shall trace the void, 

O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light, 
And say, 'Here was,' or 'is,' where all is doublj- night?" 



11 

The second canon is not less im])ortant, to wit. : that in pa.s.s- 
ing successfully through any crisis, a people must j)ossess elasticity 
enough to adapt themselves to 7le^o conditions, and thus to meet the 
issues of another Cycle. Tliis is but the vigor of the national life 
seeking a new channel when the old has fallen through, just as a 
healthy })laiit throws off a new shoot and marks by a new joint 
where interference has given another direction to its growth. 
Nothins: seals the fate of a nation sooner than the stubborn adhe- 
rence to obsolete usages and forms which the progress of society 
is determinately throwing off. These are either simply outgrown, 
as a country passes through the different stages of its own devel- 
opment, or they are displaced by the new combinations which 
policy or force may compel from without. 

History is always crystallizing anew. Fresh agents are per- 
petually introduced, old relations are dissolved, and new affini- 
ties are established. Every nation must, therefore, recognize the 
changes taking place in Avhat is variable and contingent in itself; 
whilst it preserves, with a distinct consciousness, its own identity 
throughout. Unquestionably, a clear judgment is required to dis- 
tinguish between what is essential to a nation's being, and what is 
merely accessory and accidental. And it is wonderful how Provi- 
dence raises up in great conjunctures the men who are equal to 
this task ; men of wise forethought and heroic courage, gifted 
almost with a prescience of the future, and Avith the sublime 
faith which draws that future up until it becomes their immedi- 
ate present — men immeasurably in advance of their own genera- 
tion as to the power of comprehending new and opening issues, 
and who are marked for leadership by that mesmeric influence 
which tones and subdues all with Avliom they are brought into 
contact. Thus it has come to be accepted as a sign that a nation 
has a future before it, when great men arise in these opportunities 
of history, giving form to its developments. It is the climax of 
statesmanship to strike the golden mean between the Radicalism 
which overturns only for the sake of change, and the fatal Con- 
servatism which, in its blind attachment to inheritance and pre- 
scription^ resists the progress it should aim to guide. 



12 



A clear example of this political sagacity may be found in the 
framers of the American Constitution. Born under a monarchy, 
and trained through its usages, they were yet wise enough to per- 
ceive that all its conditions were lacking upon this continent. 
There was no titled class with the prestige of nobility and rank 
from which a monarch could be chosen ; and the teachings of His- 
tory too plainly established the impossibility of lifting a single 
family from the general level to permanent presidency over the 
rest. They were too skilled in political science not to know that 
the wide interval between the commonalty and the throne must 
be filled with an intermediate class, rendering the ascent less 
abrupt and precipitous. Accepting the plain facts of their posi- 
tion, a republican form of government was with tiiem as much a 
necessity as a choice. Tlie tie of allegiance being severed to the 
British throne, the sovereignty, of course, vested in the colonies, 
standing forth in their organized form as free and independent 
States. It only remained to bind these together in a confederated 
Republic, with its written Constitution, and with those checks 
and balances furnished by two deliberative chambers, the Presi- 
dential veto, and State sovereignty. The whole political fabric 
was not changed from " turret to foundation stone ;" but only so 
far as the pressure of events imperiously demanded. The exist- 
ing organized governments were simply combined in new rela- 
tions. The whole internal machinery of State rule by domestic 
legislatures was preserved intact, and the entire body of the 
English law was carried over for the protection of personal and 
civil rights. The country was safely navigated through the perils 
of an immense revolution by the conservatism which retained all 
that was essential to order and liberty, and by the judicious bold- 
ness which lopped off the external forms in which these had been 
enshrined, when their continuance would have impeded the fresh 
development which the occasion and the age demanded. 

The particular application of these canons has no doubt been 
partially anticipated by the intelligent and critical audience before 
me. Three-fourths only of a century had elapsed since the adop- 



13 V 

tion of the American Constitution, when tlie country was precipi- 
tated into one of those stupendous revolutions by which it is ever 
the fate of nations to be shaken. A period of unparalleled ex- 
pansion and material prosperity was followed by an explosion of 
pent-up forces which threatened a universal wreck. xVnd though 
the ravages of actual war have ceased, the State still rocks beneath 
the ground-swell of that fearful agitation, and every beam and 
timber groans under the pressure of the subsiding storm. It is 
undeniable that we are still within the jaws of an amazing crisis ; 
nor can the wisest predict whether we shall survive its perils. 
The danger of a silent but complete subversion of the government 
is not a whit less real than the violent and noisy dissolution so 
recently menaced by the sword. The causes which work the final 
overthrow of nations, are none the less potent because, like the 
forces of nature, they work in secrecy and silence. The outward 
forms of administration may be observed, and the general order 
of society be maintained, while the national life may be gradually 
washing away. The inward canker may secretly cat out the sub- 
stance of a nation's strength, whilst the outward shell is perfectly 
preserved, until at length it is crushed in and thrown away as 
rubbish. 

The extraordinary panic occasioned by the late civil war, which, 
strangely enough, has not been allayed by the exhibition of tre- 
mendous force which the central authority found itself able to 
control; the appalling corruption which has suddenly spread like 
a gangrene over the whole land, pervading with its virus every 
form of business, and debauching public and private morals ; the 
lawless Radicalism wdiich has sprung like a winged dragon u])on 
the earth, devouring every thing stable and sacred in the eyes of 
men; the sense of insecurity which fills capitalists with instinctive 
forebodings of the agragrianism that shall level their fortunes to 
the dust; the ascendancy of a profligate Party, bestriding the neck 
of the nation, like the Old Man of the Sea, and not shrinking 
from constructive treason to secure the permanence of its power ; 
and the secret suspicion pervading many minds as to the impo- 



14 

tency of Republican lustitntions to perpetuate themselves upon 
the large scale of a Contineut like ours: all these influences com- 
bine to centralize the power which it was the object of our Fathers 
to diffuse. If, under their steady and combined assault, the checks 
and balances of the Constitution shall be destroyed, we slide as 
inevitably into an Empire as did ancient Rome; and, as I solemnly 
believe, with the same impending fate of ultimate disintegration 
and ruin. For a time, the Empire might indeed spread its purple 
skirt over the Continent, from sea to sea; its proud navy might 
ride triumphant upon every ocean, and a captive world be har- 
nessed to its car of conquest. Its marble palaces might for a time 
glitter in the lacker and tinsel that belong to courts ; and its cities 
throb with the pulse of commerce, and all the activities of un- 
bounded material prosperity. But -what then ? All this the 
-world has seen before, and does not ask for hanging gardens and 
Belshazzar's feasts any more. It has had enough of Egyptian 
Pyramids and of Roman triumphs. One thing is certain; the sword 
that carves this Republic into an Empire will be the sword of 
her execution, and the tyrant who wields it will prove the author 
of her doom. So complete an apostasy from the faith of our 
Fathers will be overtaken at last with a destruction as memorable 
as that of a Carthage, a Babylon, or a Rome. For, if there be 
truth in History at all, it is that a nation, traversing its funda- 
mental faiths, dies by an act o^ felo-de-se. 

If there be, then, any deliverance for us in the present crisis, it 
must be sought in a return to those cardinal truths now so much in 
danger of going by default. And the only gleam of hope amidst 
these dark forebodings is, that possibly yet, far down in the 
People's heart, both North and South, those original faiths may 
be slumbering still, beneath the prejudice and passion that are 
working out the behests of a bitter, persecuting party rule. 
Political heresies, however great, may not be suffered to deepen 
into that final apostasy from which there is no recovery. Pos- 
sibly yet, when the excruciating test shall put the virtue of the 
country upon its last probation, some master prophet will arise 



15 

whose voice shall rouse these sleeping convictions into play ; and 
the majesty of the People's will shall once more enthrone the Con- 
stitution upon its old supremacy. 

Do you ask for the enunciation of those doctrines upon whose 
re-assertion the perpetuity of the Republic depends? They are 
written in letters of gold upon those great instruments of Confed- 
eration and of Union, drawn up by the first fathers of the State. 
They are in the catechism of every honest party by which this 
country has been ruled. They are engrossed upon every page of 
our history, until these last days of disaster and of shame. They 
are graven, as with a diamond, upon all the institutions of the 
land. I had supposed them to be woven into the very tapestry 
of the people's thought. But familiar as these principles may 
be, like the Twelve Tables to the ancient Roman youth, I choose 
this day to give them voice and tongue : if perchance the faint 
whisper may gather volume as it is borne upon the breeze, and 
with its echoes rolling back from myriads of patriotic hearts, 
may fill the country with the sound. And you will pardon 
the timidity, springing from inacquaintance with political themes, 
which takes refuge in the exposition given by the immortal 
Jefferson. In his first Inaugural, upon the 4th of March, 
1801, the following commentary on the doctrines of the Con- 
stitution was delivered : "About, fellow citizens, to enter on 
the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and 
valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem 
the essential principles of our government. I will compress them 
within the narrowest compass they will bear. Equal and exact 
justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or 
political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations 
— entangling alliances with none ; the support of the State govern- 
ments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations of 
our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-repub- 
lican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in 
its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at 
home and safety abroad ; a jealous care of the right of election by 
the people; a mild and safe correction of abuses, which are lopped 



16 

by tlie sword of revolution, when peaceable remedies are unpro- 
vided ; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the 
vital principle of Republics, from which is no appeal but to force, 
the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism ; a well- 
disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first 
moments in war, till regulars can relieve them ; the supremacy of 
the civil over the military authority ; economy in the public 
expense, that labor may be lightly burdened ; the honest payment 
of our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith ; encour- 
agement of agriculture, and of commerce as its hand-maid ; the 
diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar 
of the public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
freedom of person under the protection of the Habeas Corpus ; and 
trial by juries impartially selected. These principles," adds this 
eminent statesman, " form tlie bright constellation that has gone 
before and guided our steps through an age of revolution and 
reformation. They should be the creed of our political faitli, the 
text of civic instruction, the touch-stone by which to try the ser- 
vices of those we trust. And should we wander from them in 
moments of error and alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and 
to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." 
Hov/ solemn and prophetic the warning, and how pertinent the 
appeal in the present crisis, uttered seventy years ago by the author 
of the Declaration of American Independence ! 

This enumeration of principles is not indeed exhaustive. De- 
livered upon a popular occasion, it was not intended as a scientific 
analysis, but only as a general summary. There is the grave 
omission, for example, of the grand idea, which is the corner- 
stone of our system, that all just government rests upon the 
consent of the governed ; which abdicates force as the bond holding- 
together these States. It omits the prime American doctrine of 
the total separation, both in theory and practice, between the State 
and the Church ; whose jurisdictions are fundamentally distinct. 
It omits to name — what indeed the history of that day had not so 
clearly demonstrated as it has been since — the indispensable neces- 



17 

sity of some adequate provision for protecting tlic rights of 
minorities. But if you will examine it as a summary, you will 
discover its principles to be independent, with an exception or two, 
of the particular form under Avhich a government may be adminis- 
tered ; and that practically they are illustrated under a Constitu- 
tional monarchy, like that of England, as really as in our own 
Kepublic. They are the essential principles of civil freedom the 
world over, and can never be abandoned by us in any extremity 
to which we may be driven. If the Republic is to be perpetuated 
in its existing form, this can only be by a return to these as fixed 
and cardinal maxims. If the centralism of power should throw 
us into the embraces of despotism, then will the generation after 
ours be compelled to pai-e the claws of the beast and tame his 
ferocity, and recover constitutional freedom under constitutional 
guarantees, as England has done before us. Or if, by a sort of 
general dry-rot and the total sundering of all social and moral 
bonds, this Union shall fall to pieces ; then, by the operation of 
these same principles, it will be necessary from the chaos to con- 
struct coexisting smaller republics, with the balance of power that 
has so long controlled European diplomacy. But in every case 
alike, the existence of regulated liberty will depend upon the 
maintenance of our Ancestral Faith. My earnest prayer in 
reference to our country, is, that its institutions may be preserved 
exactly as they came to us from a wise and patriotic ancestry. 
May God Almighty grant, out of the convulsive throes of tin's 
trying time, a party to be born, fresh from the people's heart, which 
shall inscribe upon its banner these original doctrines of the 
American Creed ! But next to that, if, by some sad transmigration, 
government must be clothed with another form, that at least those 
principles may survive which are necessary to the life of liberty 
itself. 

It is needless to expand this point further. Indeed, anything 

beyond these broad references w'ould carry me into the domain of 

politics, which I desire particularly to avoid. The brief space of 

time that remains to me will be required in the ai)plication of my 

2 



18 

second canon : the consideration of what we should endeavor to 
retain from the past, and what w'e should cheerfully surrender to 
the future. The sugo-estions under this head will be delivered 
with special emphasis to our own people; since it is precisely 
amongst us that the first great problems in the new cycle present 
themselves. 

1. Before all the others, there is the problem of Race, in adjusting 
the relations between two distinct peoples that must occupy the 
same soil. It is idle to blink it, for it stares us in the face 
wherever we turn: and the timidity or sensitiveness which shrinks 
from its discussion, is equally unwise and unsafe; for the country 
needs to know the comprehensive principles which will compel its 
settlement. Under the old regime, the relation betwixt the two 
was exceedingly simple, because it was domestic. The bonds 
were those of guardianship and control on the one side, of depen- 
dence and service on the other. All this is now changed, and the 
two races are equal before the law. The suddenness of this trans- 
lation, without any educational preparation for the new position, 
was a tremendous experiment. It furnishes no mean illustration 
of the heroic boldness of American legislation ; and its early and 
successful solution will afford the most conspicuous proof of the 
vigor of the national life. My own conviction is, that it is far 
too delicate and difficult a pi'oblera to be solved by empirical 
legislation — either by the State, on its political side, or by the 
Church, on its ecclesiastical. It must be patiently wrought out 
in the shape which an infinitely w'ise Providence shall direct — and 
it needs the element of time, with its silent but supreme assimi- 
lating and conciliatory influence. But so fiir as I can understand 
the teachings of History, there is one underlying principle which 
must control the question. It is indispensable that the purity of 
race shall be preserved on either side ; for it is the condition of 
life to the one, as much as to the other. The argument for this 
I base upon the declared policy of the Divine Administration 
from the days of Noah until now. The sacred writings clearly 
teach that, to prevents the amazing wickedness which brought upon 



19 

the earth the purgation of the Deluge, God saw fit to break the 
liuman tamily into sections. He separated them by destroying the 
unity of speech; then by an actnal dispersion, appointing the 
bounds of their liabitations, to which they were condnctcd by the 
mysterious guidance of His wilh The first pronounced insurrec- 
tion against His supremacy, Avas the attempt by Nimrod to oppose 
and defeat this poh'cy ; and the successive efforts of all the great 
Kingdoms to achieve universal conquest, have been but the con- 
tinuation of that primary rebellion, — always attended by the same 
overwhelming failure that marked the first. Among the methods 
of fixed separation between these original groups, "was tlie discrim- 
ination effected by certain physical characteristics: so early intro- 
duced, that no records of tradition or of stone assign their com- 
mencement; and so broadly marked in their respective types, as 
to lead a class of physiologists to deny the unity of human origin. 
I certainly believe them to be mistaken in this conclusion, and 
firmly hold to the inspired testimony that "God hath made of 
one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth." But there is no escape from the corresponding testimony, 
biblical and historical, that the human family, originally one, has 
been divided into certain large groups, for the purpose of being- 
kept historically distinct. And all attempts, in every age of the 
world, and from whatever motives, whether of ambitious dominion 
or of an infidel Humanitarianism, to force these together, are iden- 
tical in aim and parallel in guilt with the usurpation and insurrec- 
tion of the first Nimrod, 

However true that the specific varieties within these groups 
may safely intermingle and cross each other, the record of four 
thousand years confirms the fact, that there can be no large or 
permanent commixture of these great social zones, without ruin : 
and that ruin as complete as can be conceived, since it extends to 
the entire physical, intellectual, and moral nature. Wliy, just 
follow the history of colonization by the Anglo-Saxon and Latin 
races, respectively. The former, distinguished by what I may be 
permitted to term the instinct of race, has steadfastly refused to 



20 

debase its blood by such admixture : and over all the world, in 
all latitudes, their colonies have thriven. England, for example, 
besides the glory of giving birth to such a nation as our own, 
boasts to-day of her immense dependencies amid the snows of 
Canada and the jungles of India. On the other hand, the latter, 
with a feebler pride of race, has blended with every people, and 
filled the earth with a mixed breed, — the most emasculated to be 
found upon the globe, incapable of maintaining a stable govern- 
ment any where, or of developing the resources of the lands they 
burden with their presence. 

In carrying over this doctrine to the solution of our own 
problem, I have no opinions to conceal. What I "proclaim upon 
the house-top" to-day, I have uniformly " spoken in the closet" 
to the representatives of the black race, as I have had opportunity. 
I have said to them — and to their credit be it testified, the pro- 
position has generally been accepted as the counsel of wisdom — if 
you are to be a historic people, you must work out your own 
destiny uj)on your own foundation. You gain nothing by a para- 
sitic clinging to the white race; and immeasurably less, by trying 
to jostle them out of place. If you have no power of development 
from within, you lack the first quality of a historic race, and must, 
sooner or later, go to the wall. I have said to them, I deny 
nothing to you which, with our positions reversed, I would not 
refuse to myself Were I a black man, I should plead for a pure 
black race, as, being a white man, I claim it for the white race: 
and should only ask the o])portunity for it to work out its mission. 
This it is at once the duty and the desire of our people to afford. 
Accepting squarely, as the terms of national pacification, the 
Negro's emancipation and his political status, however hastily or 
unwisely conferred, along with these franchises should go the 
privileges of education and culture. But let these stand upon 
their own footing. The true policy of both races is, that they shall 
stand apart in their own social grade, in their own schools, in 
their own ecclesiastical organizations, under their own teachers 
and guides : but with all the kindness and helpful cooperation 



21 

to which the old relations between the races, and their present 
dependence on each other, would naturally predispose. As to all 
the details of the problem, they will find an adjustment through 
the gradual changes of time, in the exercise of j)raetical Anglo- 
Saxon sense, and under the direction of a wise Providence which 
still binds the destinies of the two together. 

2. The problems in a nation's career are never single. TJiis 
changed relation of the tico races draus after it the icliole labor ques- 
tion. I do not here refer to the insufficiency of labor for the coun- 
try's wants, nor yet to the inadequate control over that which 
exists. Both these must be remanded to the science of Political 
Economy, to be resolved by the quiet application of its fixed laws. 
The allusion is rather to the new condition of things, exacting a 
personal devotion to labor, rather than a mere superintendency 
of it as wrought by others. Undoubtedly the old system of large 
baronial estates must yield to that of small proprietorships, fill- 
ing the country with a denser population, and inducing a sharper 
competition, out of which only the more energetic and thrifty will 
emerge into success. The dainty descendants, who might have 
been content to repose upon the laurels of an honorable ancestry, 
find themselves suddenly thrown into the position of those ances- 
tors themselves, and called to the high office of being the founders 
of families in their turn. In all this there is nothing for a wise 
man to regret; for it is far more honorable to be an integer in the 
social arithmetic than to range in the line of decimals into which 
a noble lineage must eventually thin out. 

The diversity of pursuits in the development of our mineral 
wealth, and the branches of mechanical industry to which this will 
give rise, will open the door to activity and enterprise for our 
ambitious youth, who must enter with ardor the new fields of toil, 
or find themselves rooted out by hardy adventurers from abroad, 
reaping the ample rewards and filling the social niche they will 
then have fairly earned. The instinctive wisdom of our people 
has already foreseen the peril ; and in the enlarged curriculum of 
this Institution, and in the simultaneous adjustment of all our Col- 



22 

leges to fit our young men for the practical businesses of life, we 
discover the provision to nseet the exigencies of our new position. 
A healthy sentiment is thus created, which we must at once formu- 
late into a doctrine; that as an advanced civilization creates new- 
wants and multiplies forms of industry, so no species of labor is 
disrejnitable whose products swell the volume of that civilization, 
and cement more firmly the parts of the social fabric. The usages 
and habits which formed around the old state of things, should 
gracefully yield to those which necessity enforces in the new. A 
proper elasticity of character, adapting ns to the change, will 
bound us over the crisis, and carry us forward to ncAV and better 
destinies. 

3. In this connection, a caveat must he entered against that coarse 
and selfish Utilitarianism wJiich measures all things only by a material 
standard. This is the peril which I most dread in the impending 
crisis; that in the friction of these competitive industries, the fine 
sense of honor which formed the beautiful enamel of Southern char- 
acter, may be rubbed away, to be followed by the swift decay of 
virtue, of which it was at once the protection and the ornament. 
Materialism, sitting in the Schools and speaking through the forms 
of Philosophy, is not perhaps much to be dreaded. It is too mon- 
strous to be believed. It shocks our moral convictions, and star- 
tles the pride of self-love, to be told that thought is only a secre- 
tion of the brain — that the rapture of joy and the pathos of grief 
are only currents of electricity along the tissues of the body. We 
can safely leave this to the instinct of human scorn, which resents 
as an insult such a libel upon our nature. But the Spirit of mate- 
rialism, infused into all the transactions of business and common 
life, is the Angel of Pestilence dropping the seeds of death from 
its black wing wherever it sweeps. It is this subtle and dangerous 
spirit which is at the bottom of that fearful demoralization that 
has spread like a leprosy over the land. It is rapidly displacing 
legitimate commerce by the silent invasion of its fixed laws; ren- 
dering the individual trader helpless in the grasp of a powerful 
combination controlling the market by irregular and unnatural 



23 

methods, and making it to depend upon the interest and caprice of 
large capitalists. It is corrupting public justice through venal 
juries, no longer impartially selected, but chosen from the hangers- 
on of courts, whose sole subsistence is the bribe of the wealthy 
litigant. It is filling the noble profession of the law with mendi- 
cant attorneys, prostituting the solemn priesthood of their office 
by opening the subterfuges of legal chicanery to villainy and fraud. 
It invades even the sanctity of the bench, and overwhelms judicial 
integrity by the pressure of political and commercial combinations. 
It is converting public office from a ministry of responsibility and 
trust into a place of emolument, where the perquisites to be enjoyed 
outweigh the duties to be performed. And worse than all, it is 
sapping the truthfulness, the honesty and honor of private life, 
and silently destroying the moral bonds by which society is held 
together. Through all its grades, from the highest to the lowest, 
every man is striving to outstrip his neighbor in the possession 
and exhibition of wealth; and the most sacred claims of love, and 
all the sweet charities and refinements of social life, are sacrificed 
upon the altar of universal greed. 

Few, perhaps, suspect the deep and hidden sources from which 
this foul idolatry draws its inspiration. A virgin continent in the 
possession of the most aggressive race upon the globe ; its rich and 
varied soil, to reward the labors of agriculture ; its stores of min- 
eral wealth, to throw a charm around even the grime and toil of 
the miner; its vast opportunities of commerce, lying between two 
great oceans, with an extended coast-line upon both, and traversed 
through its whole extent by broad navigable streams — the tide of 
immigration bringing to its shores the thews and muscle necessary 
for its rapid development; all combine to stimulate the spirit of 
acquisition in our people, and lead them to exaggerate material 
prosperity as the chief good in life. 

Paradoxical too, as it may appear, the influence of our demo- 
cratic institutions bears strongly in the same direction. For whilst 
all stand professedly upon one general level, the only recognized 
distinction is that of wealth, which is, therefore, the more intensely 



24 

coveted as the only badge of preeminence. The suddenness with 
whicli a few shoot up from the depths of obscurity and poverty, 
and the obsequiousness which bows down in worship of this rapidly 
acquired wealth, intoxicate and render men delirious in its pursuit. 
The most vulgar of all aristocracies is thus created, entrance into 
which is open equally to all, and stimulates an ambition at once 
the most grovelling in its character and the most debasing in its 
influence. 

Strangely, too, the very science of the age lends its aid both to 
increase and to sanctify this gross materialism. It is distin- 
guished, not only by the comprehensiveness of its range, but 
even more by the steady application of its discoveries to the arts 
of practical life. It penetrates deeper into the mysterious mechan- 
ism of nature, interprets its more complex laws, and evolves its 
more hidden forces ; but not content with these achievements, it 
harnesses them all in the service of man as agents to execute his 
will. It tunnels our mountains, spans our rivers, weaves the net- 
work of travel over the face of the earth, lays its wires beneath 
the ocean's bed, over which the nations whisper diplomatic and 
commercial secrets across a Hemisphere. Not only so — it bakes 
and brews, it stitches and weaves, and through its witty inven- 
tions, relieves the drudgery of domestic toil. But the effect of all 
is to intensify the lust of acquisition, until it becomes a supreme 
passion, which is even ennobled by the splendors of that science 
with which it is associated, and by which it is indirectly fed. A 
nation's glory comes to be placed in its railroads and factories, its 
populous cities and gorgeous palaces, its extensive commerce and 
accumulated capital. An external and material prosperity is made 
the measure of national greatness, when the country may be rot- 
ting to its foundation in dishonesty and crime; private virtue, the 
public faith, even liberty itself, being freely sacrificed to purchase 
grandeur and power. 

It would be an immense protection against these debasing ten- 
dencies if, amid the exactions of our new position, we could carry 
over those gentlemanly instincts which have hitherto characterized 



25 

our people. In employing this unusual term, I do not mean that 
dainty mannerism Avhieh puts on the air, without the quality, of 
the gentleman. But I refer to that exquisite education of the con- 
science M-hich makes duty and benevolence the habit of the soul ; 
that fastidious honor which cannot, even in thought, condescend 
to meanness; that lofty self-respect which will observe the pro- 
prieties and practice the virtues of life, with the readiness of im- 
pulse; that nobleness of principle which makes it as easy to be 
brave and true as it is to breathe; that instinct of rectitude which 
shrinks from the false and the base as from the contamination of 
the plague. It would be a rare combination this, of courtly honor 
w^ith the hardness of toil. But if labor is ennobled when wrought 
by the hands of a freeman, how much more when associated w'ith 
the dignity of the gentleman ! 

Let us guard, then, with the jealousy of genuine alarm, against 
that despicable spirit of Utilitarianism which, like a hucksterer in 
the shambles, is always haggling with truth about her price. She 
is immeasurably more precious in herself than in all the uses to 
which men may put her. Truth, integrity, and honor are the 
highest attributes of any people, and the enjoyment of regulated 
freedom, under a Avise and constitutional government, is its noblest 
privilege and reward. 

4. Coupled with this, ice must retain from the past that individu- 
ality of character tvhich makes a man a solid unit in society. This 
attribute has with us been largely the product of circumstances. 
An agricultural people, living apart from one another, every man 
in the centre of a given circle of dependants for whom he was 
called to think and plan, there was nourished a personal indepen- 
dence which we cannot afford to lose. On the contrary, in a 
crowded population, men are cheapened in value, like the leaves 
in a forest. The individual comes to be little more than a single 
brick in a blank wall, answering only to so many square inches 
of a common surface. Through a perpetual commingling, thought 
ceases to be a fresh production of the mind, and there is substi- 
tuted for it a public opinion which is caught and given back, just 



26 

as one breathes in and breathes out a common atmosphere. This 
exphiins the amazing rapidity with which the wiklest heresies are 
propagated amongst the masses ; whose multiplied voices are but 
the reverberations of a single sound which echo prolongs. It 
explains the caprice with which hosannas are turned into execra- 
tions at the bidding of demagogues, who are "the pest of republics 
as courtiers are of monarchies." It explains the sadder fact, how 
the few who do think are browbeaten and crushed, and yield up 
their convictions and conscience, to be trampled in the dust by the 
buffixloes of the herd, as they snuff the air and scour the plain. 

This is one of the chief perils of the Ilepublic. For as the 
people are the fountain of power, they must, in the elective fran- 
chise, coalesce in a joint expression of will : and as with the increase 
of population, the drill of party becomes more and more rigid, the 
sense of personal responsibility becomes more obscure, and the 
exercise of it more difficult. You will not understand me as 
advocating that impracticable individualism which splits upon 
hairs into a thousand schisms : but that honesty of mind which 
will lead every man to contribute his quota to a true public senti- 
ment, of which his conscience will not be ashamed. For, depend 
upon it, with the extinction of this individual responsibility, there 
is no longer the possibility of virtue. In the massive language of 
Mr. Webster, "a sense of duty pursues us ever; it is omnipresent, 
like the Deity." If the sense of it be lost within the soul, there 
is the rejection of the Divine control ; and the nation slides down 
the steep declension into moral decay and death. 

5. Finally, we must carry over to the future a patriotism that is 
born of adversity and trial, more intense and purer than in the pros- 
perous and joyful past. Love of country is inextinguishable, 
because it is filial. It ranks with that we owe to the parents who 
begot us, and have given to as their image and their name. But 
I plead for it not upon the cold footing of duty, but as a precious 
sentiment of the heart. As a principle, it strikes its root far down 
into the conscience ; but its bloom must expand into a holy passion, 
and its fruit ripen into acts of enduring service for the public weal. 



'•11 

The best affections of tlie soul are those which strengthen under 
trial. The alloy of selfishness burns away in the crucible, and 
the pure love comes forth with a power of endurance which nothing 
can exhaust. It is thus we bear up each other under the discipline 
of life; not through the compulsion of necessity, nor the cold 
obligation of duty, but with a warm devotion which finds its joy 
in those ministries of love. A genuine patriotism is not that 
which shouts itself hoarse amid holiday celebrations ; but when the 
country groans in the anguish of a great crisis, waits upon its 
destiny, though it be that of the tomb. And this land of ours, 
furrowed by so many graves and overshadowed with such solemn 
memories, calls for a consecration of the heart which shall be equal 
to its grief. The patriotism which these days demand, must refine 
itself into martyrdom. It must suffer as well as act. Strong in 
the consciousness of rectitude, it must nerve itself to endure con-, 
tradiction and scorn. If need be, it must weep at the burial of 
civil liberty; and wait with the heroism of hope for its certain 
resurrection. Such a spirit will wear out the longest tyranny, 
and assist at the coronation of a brighter destiny. 

Young Gentlemen of the University, I have delivered the 
message with which I felt myself charged. I have not been 
able to address you with the fopperies of Rhetoric. I have done 
you the higher honor of supposing you capable of sympathizing 
with the deep emotions of my own heart. When your note of 
invitation reached me some months ago, it touched me with the 
solemnity of a call from the grave. I felt, as I turned ray steps 
hither, that I was making a pilgrimage to my country's shrine. 
I should be permitted to stand uncovered at the tomb of the 
immortal Chief, who sleeps in such grand repose beneath the 
academic shades where he found rest after heroic toils. Should 
I look upon it as the embleoi of my country's death? or should 
I prophesy beside it the birth of a new career? Memories holy 
as death have been throwing their shadow upon my spirit ; and I 
have spoken in the interest of country, of duty, and of truth. The 
dim forms of Washington and of Lee — twin names upon American 



28 

History, as well as upon your own walls — appear before me the 
Rhadamanthus and the Minos, who shall pronounce judgment 
upon every sentiment uttered here. If aught said by me should 
draw the frown of their disapproval, may the Angel of Pity drop 
a tear and blot it out forever ! Standing upon the soil which 
gave birth to a Washington, a Madison, a Jefferson, a Henry, a 
Randolph, a Marshall, a Jackson and a Lee; and lifting the 
scroll which hangs, around the ensign of my native State, the 
names of Pinckney, Laurens, Rutledge, Lowndes, McDuftle, 
Hayne, Calhoun ; I summon their immortal shades around his 
tomb whom a nation has so lately mourned. In their dread 
presence I solemnly d(!clare that the principles of our Fathers 
are our principles to-day; and that the stones upon which the 
temple of American liberty was first built, are the only stones 
upon which it shall ever be able to stand. And you. Gentle- 
men, representing the young thought and hope which must 
shortly deal with these mighty issues, I swear each one of you 
by an oath more solemn than that of Hannibal, not that you will 
destroy Rome, but that you will save Carthage. I charge you, 
if this great Republic like a gallant ship must drive upon the 
breakers, that you be upon the deck, and with suspended breath 
await the shock. Perchance she will survive it; but if she sink 
beneath the destiny which has devoured other great kingdoms of 
the past, that you save from the melancholy wreck our Ancestral 
Faiths, and work out yet upon this continent the problem of a 
free, constitutional, and popular government. And may the God 
of destinies give you a good issue ! 




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